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The Frog's Legacy
Detailed sypnosis Del Boy, Rodney and Albert attend the wedding of Trigger's niece, Lisa, who had previously appeared in the episode "Tea for Three". Whilst there, Del is informed by Trigger's aunt Renee, about a known local gentleman thief, Freddie "The Frog" Robdal. It transpired that Del and Rodney's mother Joan met Freddie the Frog in 1959, and "befriended" him (a euphemism for Del's mother having had a brief affair with him, as was revealed she had done many times with a number of men throughout the series' development). Renee described Freddie as a very cultured man, very much interested in French wine and paintings (Renee claims that when the police raided Freddie's holiday home it was full of original Monet's), although as she states it, Freddie was a "bit of a dandy". As the story goes, Freddie and a small gang of crooks broke into a bank in London in August 1963 and stole £250,000 pounds (pre-decimal currency) in gold bullion; the rest of the gang were apprehended by the police, but Freddie managed to somehow escape with the gold and hid it. It is on this information that Del embarks on a mission to find the lost gold, having inhereted it from his mother on her death, who in turn, had had it bequeathed to her by Robdal in his will. Uncle Albert, who knew Robdal vaguely during the war, finishes the tale later in the episode by stating that shortly after stealing the gold, and whilst still on the run from the police, Robdal and an explosives expert, referred to only as "Jelly Kelly", attempted to break into a post office in Plumstead. With Kelly having set the wires for the explosive and the robbery proceeding apparently well, Robdal inexplicably sat on the detonator, killing both men almost instantly. Albert claims that Freddie's body was found on the roof of a building opposite the post office he was intending to rob, and when Del enquires as to the fate of Jelly Kelly, Albert states that he had been holding onto the nitroglycerine when Robdal had sat down, implying that he also did not survive the explosion (or as Rodney quips "Well, if he did, he'd be no good in a Mexican Wave.") now to be remastered with Robert Pattinson as Freddie During the course of the story, Del gets Rodney a new job, though he declines to mention that it is working for the local funeral directors as a chief mourner, a fact Rodney does not take kindly to when he does find out. However, through his job there Rodney finds out that Freddie the Frog had purchased a coffin from Rodney's employers when they first started business for a "friend" named "Alfred Broderick". Rodney runs the two name through Del's computer and deduces that "Alfred Broderick" was in fact an anagram of "Frederick Robdal", meaning that Broderick was just an alias and did not exist. Freddie had then purchased the coffin to hide the gold in and had arranged a phoney funeral for it to be buried after he got all the legal documents from Del and Rodney's mum when she was a secretary in the Town Hall. The story concludes with it ultimately emerging that Freddie the Frog earned the nickname "The Frog" as he was a frogman in the Royal Navy, not due to his love "of all things French", and had buried the gold at sea, making it virtually impossible to find. A new Freddie can dive a mystery figure comes back and a deep sea diver and recovers the gold for his son he soon visits the trotters and leaves the gold on the table Rodney and delboy new actors finds out about Freddie as Rodney and Freddie finally reunite Stats Season: Christmas Special Writer: John Sullivan Director: Ray Butt Producer: Ray Butt Duration: 60 minutes Airdate: December 25, 1987 Audience stage play ''' Featured characters *Del Boy *Rodney *Uncle Albert *Mike *Boycie *Marlene *Aunt Renee *Mr. Jahan *Freddie Robdol (Robert Pattinson) *trigger Other notes Story arc *This is the second occasion in the show's history that Rodney's paternity is called into question, when Renee mentions "the rumours" about Rodney's actual father to Albert. The issue was previously mentioned in "Thicker than Water" and finally answered in "Sleepless in Peckham". Continuity errors *Del tells Trigger's aunt that he doesn't know a thing about Freddie the Frog, but in "Sleepless in Peckham", Del claims that as a child, he knew Freddie as "Uncle Freddie" back in 1960 during the first Jolly Boys' Outing. *Also in 'Thicker than water' Rodney meets his dad (well step dad) for the first time ever, as he always said he never knew his dad. But the in 'mother natures son' or 'fatal extraction' he tells Cassie in bed about how Del was his hero and he recalls a time when his dad (step dad) chased Del around the room for lying about his grades in school. He says it turned nasty and Del practically put his dad in hospital How on earth would Rodney remember that when he had never even met his dad when del and him were kids??? He didnt meet his dad until he turned up at Christmas in 'Thicker than water' and rodney was in his 20s then. What a cock up in the story line. Miscellaneous trivia *Most of the outside filming took place in Ipswich. 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